The novel’s setting is the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the 1980s, and the story of the Amins reflects that of many families in their situation. The downfall of the rich, extravagant, and decadent Shah and the takeover of the country by Islamic fundamentalists caused a huge change in society. Class hierarchy was overturned, and the wealthy were dispossessed and persecuted.

However, the novel often refers to other periods from Persia’s long and tumultuous history. Remembering the departure of the Shah, Isaac rues “the end of the Peacock Throne and the White Revolution—those gilded decades of cultural and economic reforms” (102). Isaac is lamenting the end of Persia as a monarchy: The Peacock Throne—literally a golden throne captured from India by the Persians in 1739—is a metonym for the Persian monarchy (in the same way the White House stands for the US President); while the White Revolution was the redistribution of wealth and the industrial growth launched by Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, in 1963.

With his White Revolution, the Shah had tried to emulate the durability of ancient Persia, putting the famed diamond Daria-i-Noor in his crown as an ostentatious homage to two great Persian Emperors: “to Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire, and to Darius, whose magnificent city of Persepolis had once been the symbol of the greatest civilization” (103).